Discrimination of short duration tones by elderly subjects.

The ability to discriminate the frequency of short duration tone pulses was investigated with 28 elderly subjects. In a previous study, Cranford, Stream, Rye, and Slade (1982) found that subjects with unilateral temporal lobe lesions were impaired in their ability to discriminate small changes in the frequency of such signals at ears located opposite the lesions. In the present study, although considerable intersubject variability was observed, several subjects exhibited deficits on the brief tone frequency difference limen test similar to that observed with temporal lobe lesion patients, but present at both ears. The occurrence of a discrimination problem was significantly correlated with subject age, but not with audiometric hearing level, thus suggesting the sensitivity of the test to the central neural effects of aging.